What to do?

While waiting on a red light yesterday, I turn my head to the car sitting alongside us to my left.  There, as bold as brass is a young male driver with a phone to his right ear, chatting away.  The phone was enormous.  His window was open, and his conversation was loud.  It was a busy crossroads junction, so we are sat there for over a minute. There were two males in the car, no more than 18 years old, both of them.  Excuse my language here reader, but he could not give a shit.  He wasn't in any way attempting to disguise his actions, not in the slightest.  In my head, I was seething. 

Would you believe what happened next?

A police car is held at the lights to our right.  Twenty yards away if that.  If the copper just looked to his left, there it was right in front of him.  Just look left, please look left - FOR CHRIST SAKE LOOK LEFT.

He doesn't look left.  We get a green light, and off we go.

What to do?  Bearing in mind, I can't leave the car as my supervisory role insists on my presence - that is a legal point.  Use the horn to get the attention of the police officer?  I don't think you'll find that in the Highway Code.  Shout out the window telling him to get off his phone?  What example is that to give my pupil of handling emotions while driving?

    

Oh man.  Be still my beating heart.  Life is too short.  I only hope that the driver doesn't end up killing someone while chatting away on his phone.

Self-doubt is a lonely place to be

In front of you is a 10 feet high perfectly manicured hedge.  As green as can be.  It almost glistens in the sunlight.  It is a part of a complex maze.  Dotted around the maze are 'stations' where at each one is a locked door that gives access to more of the maze.  There are over twenty stations.  What a challenge.  In the middle?  A safe, with a three digit thumbwheel.  Inside the safe? Well, let your imagination run wild; that is what is inside the safe.

To unlock each door, you have to solve the riddle at the station.  Some are mental arithmetic or a cryptic puzzle; others require a steady hand to complete a task; you have to score a penalty against a real keeper on one of them! Oh what fun, or so it seems.

It is possible not to achieve the task, in which case the door remains shut.  In those instances, you can always try finding another station.  You never know, the next one might suit your natural abilities better.

How long will it take to get in the middle?  Good question.  That is going to depend on your endurance, ability to open doors and persevere.  Don't underestimate the tasks though.  Loads of people fall into that trap.  They think it is going to be all so easy; they believe they already possess all the necessary skills. This will be a breeze.  Or so they think.

Let's keep our eyes on the prize for a moment.  It could be a chilled G&T, a  million pounds, the latest Apple gadget - imagine what your prize is.  There is no guarantee you will get in the safe - the odds are against you picking the correct sequence of three digits, but it is real, it really will open if you are right.

Off you go - goooooooood luck!

Think for a moment how that journey might go.

You start to sense where your strengths and weaknesses are.  The longer you are in the maze, you can pretty much tell within seconds which stations you are likely to achieve and which you are not.

There is a problem.  

You realise that a particular type of task is preventing you from progress.  Even when you go off to find another station, that tactic has been used to the max, but now, you do have to dig deep - there is no alternative.

Self-doubt creeps into your mind.

You get feelings of helplessness, frustration, anger.  Your motivation levels begin to wade once you start to realise you have reached your natural level of ability.  Your mind starts to wonder about others you know have got into the middle.  You start feeling a sense of injustice and even bewilderment that they have achieved the tasks but you can't.  

The sunshine starts to hide behind clouds.
It begins to drizzle.
You take a deep sigh.
Your head drops.  You feel lonely.

If only you could get into the middle.  There must be a way of getting in the middle that does not involve these stupid tasks.

Is it possible to climb the 10-foot high hedge?  Is anyone watching?  Would it hurt too much if you climbed up and jumped over the other side?

Who says that the safe will be there anyway when you get in the middle?  There will probably be some technical reason why you aren't allowed to break the lock.

You've heard there is a maze that has only ten stations in it.  The prize isn't quite so grand as this one, but you know plenty of people who have decided to go for the other maze.  It's a thought.

Who is the judge on these tasks anyway?  Who decides whether you achieve the task satisfactorily?  You start to wonder if there is some conspiracy going on here.  It might be possible that some back deals are going on unbeknown to you.

You are feeling confused.  You doubt yourself and your will power.

Suddenly, after the fifth consecutive unsuccessful attempt at the tasks, a friendly helper comes around the corner.  He smiles at you and says "Can I give you a hand?"
"Yes please, would you mind?"
"Not at all."

He starts to show you how you can practice the task.  He gives you advice about some drills that start easily but gradually increase in difficulty.  He starts to make the day brighter.  You begin to realise that you can improve with some focussed practice.  It's not easy.  Sometimes, it is quite complicated and at times pretty frustrating.  With time though, effort and a bit of grit, you unlock a door!  Yippee!  That makes you feel good.  Oh, how you are grateful to that friendly helper.  He helped you to understand how you can continue to achieve tasks even when they are initially beyond your ability.  You feel good.  You sleep well that night.
 
You are excited to see what that new door will bring.  Will it lead directly to the safe?  It is doubtful as you've only completed a handful of tasks and there are over 20 in total.  Tomorrow brings another day.


The thing is, "tomorrow" brings more challenges,  some of them increasing in difficulty.  One of the best messages we can give our pupils is to believe in themselves.  They will work hard in our company.  The journey they are on is a series of challenges of differing degrees of difficulty.  We must do everything we can to maintain hope and activate effort in our pupils.  We are emotional creatures, and perceived failure affects all of us in many different ways.  Self-doubt is a lonely place to be.

Don't judge, listen

Try not to assume anything when speaking with pupils.  To have meaningful working relationships there has to be an element of honest communication because without it, honestly, where are we?  People drive on public roads without provisional licences or insurance.  People practice in private cars without L plates displayed or even being supervised.  There can be many reasons why people drive around illegally, and it can be very enlightening to have a relationship in which these conversations take place.  

I have found that often there is a misguided belief that is deep-seated within the pupil's mind. Usually, when I listen to accounts, I find it pays just to shut up and listen because the more you hear, the more you can begin to understand why a pupil acts in the way they do.  It could be relating to family upbringing or financial considerations or perceptions of being a victim to either the police or insurance companies.
  

When you qualify to an ADI and get that green badge, you will have not only worked hard in the process, but you will have jumped through many legal hoops such as eyesight/medical requirements, DBS clearance and insurance on your driving school car.  We tend to get into this mindset that as we have accepted and complied with the requirements, then everyone else does as well.  Not so.  Driving instructors do fall foul of the law as do pupils.  It is not possible to supervise them when they do their private practice, but we should advise them of why the requirements are in place as they may have become complacent and no longer identify with potential consequences.

I had reason to ring a driving instructor association helpdesk a couple of years ago about the need to see a provisional driving licence physically.  I have sought guidance on tax questions before with the Federation of Small Businesses which I am a member.  I think nothing of asking a tyre specialist to check out my driving school car tyres.  None of us is the fountain of all knowledge at all times, and it is essential to have a supporting circle of expertise that you can access around your day to day business.  

This is not a time for obfuscation; our pupils pay us to receive sound, accurate advice.  Make every effort though to avoid immediately taking the moral high ground and listen intently because it may be possible to change beliefs with some well balanced and delivered advice.

Being healthily busy

When does being 'busy' start to become unhealthy?

For me, the short answer is after 10 hours of instruction per day.  I'm not referring to 10 hours of being on the road, but actually, 10 hours working 1:1 with customers.

Readers of my blog may have picked up that we have had some work done on our house in the last 12 months.  Finding good quality tradespeople is not easy; waiting for them to become available is commonplace.  Everyone is busy.

  

Let's say I do a couple of my intensive driving courses in a Monday to Friday week.  That means I start training with a pupil at 8 am, and I finish teaching at 5 pm (it includes an hour lunch break). That is going to provide me with a revenue of just shy of £1800.  I have a decision to make about what more I add to my diary.  Do I do more work in the evenings?  Do I work at the weekend?   There is no stopping how much I can do.  But there comes the point where it is wise to ask is it healthy?

As a PDI you could be thinking about setting up your own driving school business, sourcing your work and providing traditional pay as you go driving lessons for say £35 per hour.  Once cancellations and travel time is factored in, then how much time per day are you working 1:1 with a pupil?  It is precisely that time that represents the profit-making service.

Applying the rules of the road

Take a look at this clip

So the first question is one of knowledge.  As a PDI you will need to know whether something is either legal or not (ref to 129 of HWC).

Then it becomes a question of suitability.  In these circumstances is it wise to be overtaking the cyclist at this point?

And once you have those answers clear in your mind, then you need to decide how you go about testing for understanding with your pupil.  There could be many reasons why a pupil does the action they do.  Depending on the level of verbal instruction that you have both agreed upon has a bearing on what is mentioned prior to this happening and yet, safety has to be maintained.

So this becomes a balancing act around the issue of allowing your pupils the freedom to demonstrate independent driving, versus a driving instructors desire to apply the law and control all driving actions appropriately for safety, and finally the opportunity for a pupil to learn from mistakes.  

It is important that pupils are given the freedom to make mistakes (not ignoring the combined responsibility on both parties to maintain safety), because fundamentally it is better to make mistakes now with you supervising.  When a driving instructor over-instructs, any little chinks such as this example do not occur as the instructor immediately flys into "helicopter instructor" mode and controls the situation.  By restraining pupils in this manner, it is robbing opportunities for deeper levels of learning.

Consciously competent

Which is worse for driving instructors: the feeling of anxiety and resentment that they experience before, during and after a DVSA Standards Check or the culture of fear that is promulgated by driving instructor trainers in the industry that helps to feed that anxiety.

You won't find too many emotions expressed publicly on social media by driving instructors; primarily because they work within competitive market conditions where exposed weaknesses could be detrimental to the business.

Teachers don't suffer from such market forces and are far more willing to publish precisely how they feel at the time of OFSTED inspections.  Just scroll through > this thread < here to see how people are severely affected by these types of assessments.

Driving instructors do get traumatised by the prospect of a Standards Check, and it is entirely avoidable when you start to think why it is the case seriously.

When you are about to be assessed in a professional capacity, ideally what you want to be able to do, is carry on with business as usual.  You want to conduct your service in the same way that you have done so that your mind is not introducing anything new.  Think of it in much the same terms as our pupils driving on their test.  If they attempt to do driving actions that are not routine, such as systematic observations or defensive driving, then the resulting drive is problematic and inconsistent.

One tip is to consider the business in terms of its success.  Is the diary full with a waiting list for new customers, are you enjoyably providing the service day to day effortlessly with no dramas such as complaints lodged with the DVSA, or accidents damaging the driving school car,  and there are healthy profits?

In much the same way that little chinks of self-doubt in our pupils' driving ability can create problems in the high-stress environment of driving tests, so it is right with how the mind can upset behaviours on standards checks. 

 

An ADI needs to have confidence in their ability to add value for customers before the DVSA have even contacted them to give notice of a Standards Check.  If you have seeds of doubt on this point > contact me <

The ultimate aim is for the confidence in your self worth to obliterate any trace of anxiety generated by an examiner assessing you.  People in authoritative positions do abuse their power - it is a pervasive and desperately sad fact of human behaviour.  When people are on the receiving end of ill-treatment from such people, the mental consequences can be far-reaching.  I have no doubts in asking my reader to consider the behaviours of some examiners out there - in terms of learner driving tests or PDI qualifying tests; this is real and to pretend otherwise is not being very helpful to PDI's.

With systemized behaviours, it frees up brain space to raise quality standards.  In effect, it becomes less about "what should I do now/next" and more about "how can I maximise what I am doing now for the benefit of my pupil". 

Information processing skills

I was working over in sunny Grantham yesterday late afternoon with a learner driver pupil.  She did something which I think is worth mentioning particularly for any PDI's reading my blog.

Having done some forward and reverse bay parking practice, she started to navigate out the car park, to go and practice some parallel parking.  The exit of the car park swept to the right and over on the left was an entry/exit which was for access to the side of the retail park.  I imagine it is for staff parking and delivery use.  It is a blind opening, rather narrow and very easily missed if a driver wasn't scanning effectively.

But my pupil was scanning.  She took the trouble to do a left chin to shoulder as a left side mirror could easily have missed something in the blind spot; it was timed to perfection.

When she got into the new road, I praised her for that observation.  Granted it was a non-event because nothing did come out from the opening to the left, but it is that level of detail with observations that keeps things safe.  

Look what the DIH has to say on this subject:

"Most collision accidents result from deficiencies in a driver's information-processing skills and not from deficient car control.  A large proportion of accidents could be avoided if drivers were more aware of the risks involved, knew what to look for and what to expect, and were prepared to drive defensively by taking avoiding action."

I don't wish to come across as patronising to my readers, but it is worth making the point to pupils that complete car control is a given.  This is the stuff within the first two tiers of the GDE Matrix.  It is the information-processing skills and willingness to drive defensively that sets drivers apart.

I just wanted to emphasise this point as it is well worthy of note for aspiring driving instructors.

[Just as a side note.  I don't see it as a weakness at all to delay praise until after a pupil has done some challenging work (in this case, emerging on to a busy road).  Not only are you allowing your pupil to concentrate when it matters but also pupils will think highly of you for taking the trouble to give credit when it is due, even if it is slightly delayed.  When they are working hard, it is courteous to demonstrate that you notice it, particularly in circumstances like this, where it would have been so easy to ignore her left "chin to shoulder" check".]  

TISFB

There is nothing quite as off-putting as a trainer thrusting upon me their acronyms.  Many trainers including driving instructors can still be found insisting that pupils remember these complicated sequences of letters.

The military currently uses "COC", "JSTFA" and "PES".  Driving trainers use "IPSGA" and "MSPSL".  On a CPD course I attended, the trainers expected me to remember "SEDSS" and "HPSaucePLease".  

I wonder how many readers could accurately recall the acronym for overtaking on a motorway (pg 296 of DES will reveal all)?

The fact of the matter is that your average driver out there will struggle to remember "MSM" let alone any more of the other complex varieties.  They might be able to recall the three letters with a bit of prompting, but what they stand for and in what context might be a stretch.

When I train driving instructors I like to keep things real and relevant; if I'm saying ANYTHING that my pupil is not understanding, I may as well not mention it.  This problem of relevance will be one of the reasons why only 3,000 out of the yearly 9,000 people who start the driving instructor application process, actually go on to qualify.*

In my experience of training PDI's, people like to connect to the training; it needs to practically and mentally make sense for it to stand any chance of sticking.

*DIH pg 3

("This is so f'ing boring" for anyone wondering about the title)

Structuring the learning

The Driving Instructors Handbook usefully details nine main principles involved in structuring any driving instruction (pg 149).  Regrettably, it adds explicitly in the introduction:

"As there is a good deal of common sense involved in teaching a practical skill, most good instructors follow these principles intuitively."

I'm not sure what other introduction could have been more effective in switching off a reader:  "For all you numbnuts out there, that have absolutely no common sense, you probably aren't a good driving instructor, so you need to read up on these 9 main principles (the rest of us just follow them intuitively)." 

Charmed, I'm sure.

If following the principles was merely down to "common sense", then I wonder why some driving instructors suffer from as many accidents as they do?  I would have thought it "common sense" that if my pupils were having accidents in my driving school car under my supervision, then perhaps I need to reconsider how adequate is my ability to teach pupils.

Where have we seen that group of wording before?  Oh yes, the DVSA Standards Check: "The approved driving instructor (ADI) standards check assesses your ability to teach pupils."

It would be logical to draw a connection between a driving instructor's ability to teach pupils effectively, keep things safe while doing so, and a Standards Check result.  As can be seen, > by this unbelievable driving test pass <, logic at times goes out the window!

My invitation in this blog is for driving instructors who are having accidents (regardless of their Standards Check grade), to consider how effectively they are working alongside these nine guiding principles.

Driving instructors' sat nav device

My TomTom sat nav has given up the ghost.  It has been well used since the "new" driving test (Dec 2017).  I've replaced it thanks to Amazon (Tom Tom 52 Start + rubber mat + hard case is just shy of £130), with the "click to delivered" expediency that we have all come to expect.

I'm not a great lover of it.  I think it is pretty naff, but as a driving instructor reviewer on Amazon stated with reluctance to countenance the product, there is no choice as this is the model used by the DVSA on their driving tests.

My understanding is that they are going to review it once two years have elapsed.  It has this very annoying tendency to instruct a driver to "keep right" when it merely wants them to stay on the current road they are on and not take an upcoming exit.  Talk about misleading to a candidate on a driving test.  The examiners do their utmost to manage the situation; I imagine it must test the patience of even the calmest amongst them.  It's functionality is basic and the user experience is unrefined.

The vulnerable point in my experience was the socket going into the device for power.  With time, it becomes loose and therefore unreliable.

With a bit of luck, we will only have to endure this sub-standard product for another nine months or so.

Precious quality time

I often wonder if it were possible to ascertain accurately, what is the typical cancellation rate for pay as you go driving lessons?  

It appears to feature with some frequency by both parties, the pupil and the driving instructor.  Would 20% represent a reasonable guess?  1 in 5 driving lessons cancelled by either party?  

Whatever the figure is, it represents a significant amount of wasted time.  The waste not just coming from any journeys incurred, but it manifests a reduction in progress made by affecting the learning curve, and it damages working relationships by creating querulous text or telephone exchanges.

I know that a fairly common criticism made by driving instructors is when they discover communication channels with customers to be a morass with tinges of resentment.

The BIG TOM franchise includes a fabulous service provided by our Admin which quite literally removes all trace of these sour endemic customer relations.  The creation of diary appointments on behalf of the ADI occurs once the availability of the ADI has been understood.  Payments are transacted straight into the account of the ADI in advance of any work taking place (this reduces any cancellations to almost zero - but this commitment works both ways).

The benefit of working within these parameters is that our franchisees are provided with an administrative barrier if you like; they can concentrate on delivering first class in-car training without the energy-sapping admin that often creeps into precious evening and weekend quality time.

Can you smell something?

This week I blogged on my website about the fact that my driving school has been established now for ten years.  It is a proud milestone to celebrate as with the longevity I can also say that there has not been one single accident in all that time either.  When you consider my customers drive something like 30,000 miles per year, I think I have every right to feel proud.

I think it does not harm to consider what benefit experience brings to a business, particularly relevant to any readers who are training to qualify as a driving instructor. 

Over time, a prudent business person will listen carefully to customer feedback and adapt the business model accordingly.  That way, there is this frequent sharpening up of the benefits provided to customers.

It is just as important however to consider the quality of the service being provided by the people within the organisation; everyone plays an important role and can add value. 

Don't get all woke on me now dear reader, but I can give you an example of this point using a situation that occurred to me only yesterday.  Yes, I am white, 50 years old and male; let's put that out there for starters to ensure some transparency.

I have some foam backed click vinyl flooring that needs laying in an en-suite. Usually, I would be thinking of preparing it by adding a sheet of plywood to the base beforehand, but the instructions that accompany this new flooring advise against it. Really?

 

I go down to my local building supplies store and relay my question about the need for any additional base to a young looking employee (certainly no more than 20 years old), who happens to be female.  There are a few things that went wrong, really quite quickly.  It was apparent within about 10 seconds that the precise question I was asking was not in her immediate knowledge base.  But rather than ping me off to another member of staff (there were many around), she walks me over to an aisle and starts to "sell" me a pre-formed resin based product which is a substitute for plywood but also requires priming.  So look at this from my point of view.  I'm not getting my specific question answered, but shown a new, unfamiliar product that will cost more than plywood and involves more work due to the primer that has to be applied.

To conclude my customer interface we came to a caveat, that I should read up the instructions for this new product she has introduced, and also "look online".  So she is now giving me extra research work to do before I even make a purchase.  Now, as I say, I'm getting on in life.  I'm getting on so much in life in fact, that even with her pretty smiling face and confident demeanour, I know when I'm being given the brush off. 

 

And this matters folks.  I will not go to a store that gives me the brush off; there are too many choices available to me for businesses to get away with this lack of customer care.  I will not go into that store again.

And this is how businesses die.  The reason why I took the trouble to go out and speak face to face with someone, was because I wanted to pull on their knowledge, make the right choice and return home all in one go.  But instead, I came out the other end of this experience, loaded with additional work, and crucially, not having my question answered; my head felt more burdened as I left the premises than it did when I walked in.  Not good.

As for driving instructors, I would suggest that we take heed of this anecdote.  If you are struggling to retain pupils, then it may well be related to how their head feels when they leave your driving school car compared to when they got into it.

Robust driving assessment

As my last blog was about an unbelievable driving test pass, it is quite natural for someone not working within driving training to ask the question:

"If that pupil was such a bad driver, why did he get put in for the driving test?"

I think if someone who is in the industry were to ask that question, they would be displaying such naivety that one could only really ask if there is a hidden motive in them raising that question.

The very first point to make is that anyone with access to an approved, roadworthy vehicle can take a driving test whenever they like.  There is no obligation in the UK to spend one-minute training with a registered driving instructor to learn how to drive.  As such, the idea that is driving instructors act as some gate, filtering system to prevent the public from going to take their driving test too soon is fundamentally flawed.

Working relationships with pupils that have mutual openness, trust and honesty in the conversations are the goal of DVSA registered driving instructors.  Pupils are encouraged to reflect on their confidence and ability, and take ownership of the process they choose in learning to drive.  In the interests of safety, they are prepared to listen and heed the advice given to them by their driving instructor.  (For young adults, I believe this should also include their parents).

How a pupil drives on a driving test does not necessarily reflect the standard of driving they are capable of in an environment outside of the driving test.

If one puts to one side the prospect of a flawed driving test assessment, consider the responsibility for the correct timing of a driving test which is in the hands of either pupils/parents or if they care to listen to their driving instructor, driving instructors.  This skill is not assessed within the qualifying tests to become a driving instructor.  It is possible that newly qualified driving instructors could take some time to develop this skill.  The correct timing of specific activities is involved, think intricate brain surgery, sporting techniques, project management; mistakes will happen - humans do not get things right on every single occasion.

Let me remind readers that the national average pass rate in the UK remains at less than 50% as it has for years.  Statistically, there is more chance of failing a driving test on the first occasion than passing it.

When the timing for driving tests goes wrong AND the assessment process is not sufficiently robust the result is we have newly qualified drivers let loose on public roads with all the potential safety implications then created.  It is for this reason alone; in my opinion, the final assessment of whether a driver should be allowed to drive independently is critical and must have 100% integrity.  The method by which the DVSA makes that assessment must be sufficiently robust that it eliminates inherent human error. 

Your thoughts?

This will be one of the strangest blogs that I reckon I will ever write.
  
I am attempting to maintain an emollient position in this strangest of accounts regarding a driving test I have just observed.  The following miscellany of facts as witnessed by me was from the rear seat sat behind the candidate, my pupil.
  
I completely understand if you read the following and consider it to be arrant nonsense that I must be making up.

How best to describe what I have seen I wonder?   I'll list what I saw in no particular order.

We turned left into a one-way street where the examiner then instructed to turn right at the end of the road.  The end of the road was a very short distance away, and my pupil did a complete lane change without observations; the examiner did a swift, darting check over his right shoulder while we were moving over to the right (no vehicle was to our right).

My pupil came around a right bend in a one-way street and mounted the kerb with the front nearside wheel; it was a proper thump of a contact where the wheel went entirely off the road.  This was promptly followed by my pupil not stopping for a person stood by the driver's door of a parked car to our right; he had a leg/foot in a plaster cast.  The person was hobbling along, but rather than pause and allow him to clear the middle of the road; my pupil just continued driving - I would estimate we were about one foot from the pedestrian.

With parked cars on the left (our side), in a busy residential area, my pupil approached and continued to pass them, crossing over the middle white line and in doing so made an oncoming vehicle slow abruptly right down almost to a stop where the examiner waved at the female driver as we passed.

On two hill starts, we rolled back before moving forward. 

Two moving offs did not have a blind spot check over the right shoulder.

The manoeuvre was pulling up on the right.  Having done so, the examiner asked my pupil to reverse back two car lengths staying reasonably close to the kerb.  As the car reversed, we were moving increasingly further away from the kerb, and my pupil was only looking in both side mirrors, no central mirror check and no turning of the head at all.

On one right emerge, we pulled on to a single carriageway in nationals, and a white vehicle was immediately right behind us.  On a right turn, a small van behind overtook us as we turned into the minor road.

My pupil repeatedly pulled up to junctions for an emerge, taking the gear lever out of gear into neutral and sat there unprepared for an emerge.  To me, this appeared to be a theme where he was planning for a stop as opposed to being open to keep going, and it caused an unnecessary wait.

When some red roadwork traffic lights turned to green on a steep incline, my pupil set off and attempted to change into second too soon, and the car was right on the brink of stalling.  The examiner verbally intervened and instructed him to stay in first to get some momentum up the hill.

 On a couple of occasions, I felt we were travelling too close to the vehicles in front (in terms of normal seperation gaps).

On the instruction of turning left at the end of the road (emerge), my pupil put a left signal on too soon when there was a junction - although no-one was coming out of the junction.

Our position in the road appeared to me to drift towards the centre on a couple of occasions - one of which was on a single carriageway in nationals, with vehicles oncoming.  Although I didn't think the offside wheels went on to the middle white line, they would have been very close.

On the debrief, the examiner having passed my pupil gave a most comprehensive account for all the faults that had been marked (11 in total).  I will post up the fault sheet when my pupil emails a photo of it over to me.  So while handing over the test pass certificate the examiner gave an extremely strange non-sequiter.  He advised my pupil to take up some more driving training with me.  He said that my pupil should buy some more training from me.

After ten years of observing driving tests, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the requirements expected but this experience today has completely left me at odds.  Perhaps you, my reader, may consider this an edifying journey through the mind of a driving examiner?